Luciano Spalletti will take charge of his first match as Juventus coach on Saturday, but his debut will not be easy at all, as Kenan Yildiz and Lloyd Kelly have been ruled out of the squad due to injury.
Juventus travel to Cremona to face Davide Nicolas’ side in a Serie A match on Saturday at 20:45.
This will be Spalletti’s first match in charge of the black and whites after his appointment on Thursday night to replace Igor Tudor.
So far, the Italian coach has only held one training session with the team and, for this reason, is not expected to make any major changes to the formation or playing system that the team has used in recent weeks.
In his first press conference on Friday, Spalletti stated that he intends to switch to a four-man defence in the future, but for Saturday’s match he is expected to stick with a three-man defence, although he has only three centre-backs available, as Kelly and Bremer are injured.
This means that Pierre Kalulu, Federico Gatti and Daniele Rugani will be the starting eleven, while Next Gen defenders Pedro Felipe and Filippo Scaglia have been called up to fill the bench.
There will be a forced change in the attacking department, as Yildiz has been left out of the squad. Francisco Conceicao is expected to return to the starting line-up and play alongside Lois Opendas on the wings, with Dusan Vlahovic leading the attack in the centre.
In midfield, Khephren Thuram has returned to the squad after missing the match against Udinese on Wednesday. It remains to be seen whether he will be an immediate starter, as Teun Koopmeiners, Manuel Locatelli and Weston McKennie are also available.
According to “Football Italia”, this could be the formation that Spalletti is expected to use for tomorrow’s match.
Possible formation (3-4-2-1):
Di Gregorio; Kalulu, Gatti, Rugani; McKennie, Koopmeiners, Thuram/Locatelli, Cambiaso; Conceicao, Openda; Vlahovic.
